Research for the future was the theme of the 4th Engineering Research and Development for Technology (ERDT) Conference entitled Charting the R&D Roadmap of the Philippines held February 19 at the Sofitel Philippine Plaza Hotel.
Some 700 scholars from the 7 - university consortium—headed by the UP College of Engineering (CoE) and funded by a grant from the Department of Science and Technology (DOST)—invited speakers from all over the world to talk about trends and the atmosphere for engineering research in the Philippines.
DOST Secretary Cecilia Alabastro opened the program with a situationer on technology business incubation in the country and how the government is doing its best to boost research and development (R&D), particularly the difficult task of commercializing promising researches.
She was glad to share that private R&D funding has significantly increased in the last few years, thanks in part to government initiatives like the ERDT and several technology business incubators (TBIs) that were established by the DOST all over the country.
She was also happy to report that House Bill 5208, also known as “An Act Promoting the Transfer of Technologies and Knowledge from Research and Development (R&D) Funded by Government” or the Technology Transfer Act of 2008, passed through Senate approval in February.
Authored by Senators Edgardo Angara, Mar Roxas and Loren Legarda, HB 5208 seeks to promote and facilitate the transfer, dissemination and use of technologies and knowledge from government-funded R&D.
Dr. Yozo Fujino, a professor of Civil Engineering from the University of Tokyo, talked about the University of Tokyo’s research program in his segment entitled “Research through New Global Centers of Excellence at University of Tokyo.”
Fujino talked about how research and development is being done at the University of Tokyo, expounding on the close relationship between academe and the industry. According to him, the number of research grants funded by industry is increasing despite the economic meltdown.
Next to speak was Dr. Gavriel Salvendy, Professor of Industrial Engineering at Tsinghua University in China, who shared firsthand experience in his talk entitled “Lessons learned from research and practice on the human side of industrial engineering.”
Salvendy opted to deviate from the normal power point presentation and instead talked about key experiences in the manufacturing industry that could apply to the Philippines’ R&D goals. One of the points he stressed was that before any endeavor, specific, clear cut goals must first be established so that the focus does not waver.
Dr. Joel Cuello, a professor of Biosystems Engineering at the University of Arizona, discussed two directions of R&D that the country can take to cope with the changes in economy and the environment.
His talk, entitled “Engineering education in the 21st century: toward an innovation-driven and sustainability-centered engineering design,” stressed that future engineering designs should be more innovation-driven and sustainability-centered.
The next speaker, Dr. David Ian Bishop, professor of Geomatics at the University of Melbourne, Australia, talked about the Australian government’s Cooperative Research Centre (CRC) Program and his experience in its Spatial Information CRC in his segment entitled “Researching GIS and spatial visualization with the Australian Cooperative Research Centre Program.”
The CRC Program aims to link the commercial with the academic by “supporting end-user driven research partnerships between publicly funded researchers and end-users to address clearly articulated, major challenges that require medium to long term collaborative efforts.”
Each CRC is an incorporated or unincorporated organization formed through collaborative partnerships between publicly funded researchers and end users. Bishop had worked in the Spatial Visualization CRC.
The next speaker, Dr. Chang Ho Park, professor of Chemical Engineering at Kyung Hee University, placed emphasis on the growing biofuels industry in his talk entitled “Biotechnology for energy and environment: new opportunities.”
A key point in his lecture was that biotechnology goes far beyond its growing importance and use as a replacement for energy usage, as it also extends to biopharmaceuticals and biochemical materials; an alternative to the expensive petrochemicals.
He emphasized the potential of the Philippines as an importance source of biofuels and feedstock (from which biochemicals are derived), and the need for enhanced synergy between production technology and feedstock supply.
The last speaker, Dr. Nina Osanna of the University of Arizona’s BIO5 Institute closed the afternoon with an introduction on the institute’s approach to multidisciplinary, collaborative life sciences and how it is reflected in its curriculum.
She names the approach technology transfer 2.0, where it moves beyond traditional process of technology transfer by making business development and technology transfer resources an integral part of the research unit.
An open forum followed each of the talks, with the scholars and industry insiders giving feedback and posing questions for the speakers.
--Anna Regidor